HIE debate gets fiery

Even as the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) continues to promote health information exchanges, the debate over the viability and usefulness of the current generation of HIES is heating up. "It's time to face the facts: Our nationwide network of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) is an unmitigated disaster," declared William Yasnoff, MD, PhD, president of the Health Record Banking Alliance, in a recent article in NHINWatch. John Loonsk, MD, chief medical officer of CGI Federal and a former high-ranking ONC official, also raised questions about the feasibility of HIEs in a recent Healthcare IT News piece.